Snowboarding has become a worldwide sport with millions of riders in the United States. Riders have invested large sums of money in purchasing state-of-the-art equipment, such as bindings and snowboards.
Typically, a snowboard assembly comprises a snowboard and a snowboard binding assembly for each foot that is attached to the top surface of the snowboard. A rider must wear snowboard boots that are specially adapted to interface with the snowboard binding assembly to hold the rider's feet to the snowboard. The snowboard itself is typically an elongated composite material that is semi-rigid which allows the rider to slide across the surface of the snow. Snowboard binding assemblies and snowboards can become quite expensive and many riders have already invested in snowboarding equipment.
However, one disadvantage to existing snowboard equipment is that the snowboard binding rigidly maintains the snowboard boot in place at a preferred setting, typically at or nearly perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the snowboard with one snowboard boot placed in front of the other. Therefore, depending upon the rider's preference, the rider typically looks over either his right or left shoulder (depending upon whether their right or left snowboard boot is in front) when sliding forward. This is a disadvantage because while the snowboard bindings may have been adjusted to a preset angular setting, the rider may desire to adjust the snowboard binding to a different angular setting depending upon the terrain, riding style and the duration the rider has been snowboarding.
Riders that use non-rotatable snowboard bindings also have a difficult time sliding on a flat surface such as at the bottom of the hill. Snowboard riders are well known for the “pigeon toe” walk when moving around on a flat surface such as when getting on a chair lift. Typically, when a snowboard rider needs to move around on a flat surface, he will remove his back snowboard boot from the rear snowboard binding so that he can push himself along with his back foot. However, the front foot is rigidly held in place at or nearly perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the snowboard thereby causing the “pigeon toe” walk with the front foot turned in at a precipitous angle to the direction of movement. This forcing of the snowboard boot and therefore the rider's foot inward puts a tremendous amount of stress on the rider's front knee, leg and hip. It is also very difficult for the rider to move around in such an awkward stance, especially when moving through crowds and getting on and off a chair lift.
Another problem faced by snowboard riders is toe and/or heel drag. Toe and/or heel drag is a problem typically encountered by larger individuals having relatively large feet. With typical snowboard bindings as previously discussed, the snowboard boot is typically held at or nearly perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the snowboard. If the rider has large feet, the toe and/or heel of the snowboard boot may extend beyond the edge of the snowboard. Therefore, when the rider makes a front or rear turn the toes and/or heels of his snowboard boots may drag against the snow. This is highly undesirable because it slows the rider down, causes drag to one side of the snowboard thereby increasing the difficulty of balancing on the snowboard, or may even catch on the snow or ice causing the rider to pitch forward and fall.
A number of patents have sought to address this problem with limited success.
For instance, a number of U.S. patents have provided a rotatable snowboard binding that will allow the rider to adjust the rotational angle of his snowboard boots relative to the longitudinal axis of the snowboard. However, these rotatable snowboard bindings are replacements for the rider's existing snowboard bindings. Since snowboard bindings are relatively expensive, it is undesirable for a rider to have to replace his existing snowboard bindings in order to purchase rotatable ones.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,155,578 to Patterson (“the '578 patent”), discloses a snowboard binding interface system for use with various snowboard bindings. The interface system allows the snowboard rider to rotate his snowboard boot from an original preset orientation to a position approximately or more closely parallel to the snowboard's longitudinal axis or direction. While the '578 patent may help to eliminate the “pigeon toe” walk, a rider will not be able to adjust the snowboard binding to a different angular positions depending on the terrain and conditions. In fact, the '578 patent teaches away from the rider being able to adjust the snowboard binding to a plurality of settings for snowboard runs where it states that the device is “rotatable to the original locked position for accurately orienting the secured binding 12 to its initial preset orientation for snowboarding runs.” (Col. 5, lines 34-6). In addition, while the '578 patent is an improvement for the “pigeon toe” walk, some riders may not want to turn their foot to an angle completely inline with the longitudinal axis of the snowboard such that the rider has greater lateral stability and balance when moving around on the flat surface. The '578 patent also does not solve the problem of toe and/or heel drag as previously discussed. Another problem with the '578 patent is that the locking mechanism is not easily accessed. In order to rotate the binding, the rider must bend down to the binding to pull out the two locking elements and begin rotating the binding while they are held in the disengaged position. This can be very difficult to do wearing gloves or mittens, and it may be difficult for the rider to bend down to that extent to reach the locking elements with all clothing and equipment being worn.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,062,584 to Sabol (“the '584 patent”), discloses a retrofit device adapted to convert existing non-rotatable snowboard bindings to rotatable snowboard bindings. However, while the '584 patent may be able to adapt some existing bindings, it is only usable with snowboard bindings that are center bolted having a cap plate. In other words, the existing snowboard binding itself becomes an integral part of the retrofit assembly with the bolts of the existing snowboard bindings holding the retrofit device together such that to remove the snowboard bindings the retrofit device must also be disassembled. However, if the existing binding does not exactly lineup with the retrofit assembly, it cannot be used. Therefore, while the '584 patent teaches retrofitting existing snowboard bindings, it is limited to only those snowboard binding assemblies that have a cap plate that may be directly bolted to base plate. In addition, the '584 patent utilizes roller bearings to provide rotational functionality, however roller bearings are highly undesirable to use because snow and ice have a tendency to freeze these so that they no longer function properly.